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Initial claims by sector

Here are two charts regardinginitial claims for unemployment insurance by sector in Washington state for the four-week period from July 21 to August 15. The first chart shows the number of claims by sector. The five sectors with the greatest number of claims are, in descending order, accommodation and food services; manufacturing; health services and […]

In Washington 32,962 filed initial claims for unemployment insurance last week

This morning the state Employment Security Department (ESD) gave its weekly report on unemployment insurance claims. ESD reported a total of 32,962 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the August 9–15 week. Of this total, 21,942 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 4,762 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, […]

Nationwide, 1,106,000 filed for unemployment insurance last week

The U.S. Department of Labor issued its weekly report on initial claims for unemployment insurance this morning. Nationwide, the number of seasonally adjusted claims was 1,106,000 last week. This is 135,000 more than the (upwardly revised) number of claims for the previous week, 971,000. The 4-week moving average of seasonally adjusted claims was 1,175,750, down […]

Monthly Employment Report

The state Employment Security Department released its Monthly Employment Report today. According to preliminary estimates from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the state gained 44,500 jobs, net, seasonally adjusted (SA), from June to July. This estimate is based on BLS’s monthly survey of employers, which counts as employed all persons who received pay […]

Good news on state tax collections in July

Yesterday’s monthly report from state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) on general fund revenue collections brought good news. For the sales tax, the use tax, the business and occupation tax, the public utility tax, the tobacco products tax, and penalties and interest (collectively the Revenue Act receipts), this report covers payments received between July […]

New Data Set Reveals Real-time Consumer Expenditures by Industry

On June 17th, Raj Chetty and his team at Opportunity Insights unveiled and began regularly updating a new data set documenting real-time economic statistics. Chart 1 displays one statistic, total consumer expenditures in Washington relative to January. It shows expenditures plummeting in mid-March before gradually recovering over the past several months. Chart 2 focuses on […]

The Seattle metro region has lost $13.4 billion in gross business revenue; many cities in WA have projected revenue losses

This week the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce released a study showing the impacts of the recession on the Seattle metro area. Some of the findings: Gross business revenues were down $13.4 billion year-to-date through June 2020 (compared with the same period in 2019). Of those losses, $9.0 billion was in King County (including $3.5 […]

Mayor Durkan vetoed new spending from Seattle’s emergency funds, but the veto will probably be overridden

Last Friday, Seattle Mayor Durkan vetoed a bill that would appropriate $85.8 million from the city’s emergency and revenue stabilization funds. The City Council approved the appropriations to pay for new 2020 spending related to “the economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.” The appropriations in the bill include: $19.5 million for “existing homelessness prevention […]

Initial claims by sector

Here are two charts presentinginitial claims for unemployment insurance by sector in Washington state for the four-week period from July 5 to August 1. The first chart shows the number of claims by sector. The five sectors with the greatest number of claims are, in descending order, accommodation and food services; health services and social […]

In Washington 36,293 filed initial claims for unemployment insurance last week

In Washington 36,293 filed initial claims for unemployment insurance last week This morning the state Employment Security Department (ESD) gave its weekly report on unemployment insurance claims. ESD reported a total of 36,293 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the July 26–August 1 week. Of this total, 24,985 initial claims were under the regular unemployment […]